Terrorist Samir Azzouz to be Released next Week

ROTTERDAM, 30/08/13 - Samir Azzouz, sentenced to nine years in jail for terrorism, will be released on 6 September. The district court in Rotterdam sees no reason to postpone the provisional release by one year, as the Public Prosecutor (OM) has requested.

Next week, Azzouz will have served two-thirds of his sentence. Most prisoners are then eligible for release, though they do have to comply with certain requirements.

The OM considers that Azzouz has no complied with the requirements for conditional release, particularly because he still has radical Islamic convictions. He is also said to have misbehaved in prison.

In September 2012, Azzouz was re-arrested in his cell because he was once again a suspect of preparing a terrorist attack. He allegedly sought cooperation from other prisoners. The OM could not however get the required evidence together.

According to the judge, the OM has not put forward any plan stating how the danger of repetition could be reduced if Azzouz were to remain in jail for another year. Additionally, the misbehaviour, including smuggling a telephone, did not constitute ‘serious misbehaviour,’ according to the verdict.

Azzouz was a member of the Hofstad Group, to which Mohammed Bouyeri, the murderer of Theo van Gogh, also belonged. Azzouz was sentenced to nine years in 2008 for preparing attacks on targets including politicians and the head office of the AIVD secret service. He had also been convicted in 2007, of preparing a terrorist attack in 2004.